China Textbook Printing Standards Set for Release: Primary Non-Core Books Shift from A4 to B5

A representative of the China Institute of Publishing Science said the revised printing standard for primary and secondary school textbooks has been completed and forwarded to the Standardization Administration of China for approval; it is expected to be released to the public in the near future. To protect students' eye health, textbooks for non-core subjects such as music and art in primary schools will be resized from the current A4 format to B5.

The existing standard has been used for eight years

Liu Yuzhu, associate researcher at the National Press and Publication Standardization Technical Committee, explained that the current standard for printing primary and secondary school textbooks came into force in 2001 and had been in use for almost eight years by that point. At the time, he noted, many textbooks were image-heavy, used costly paper and had oversized pages; a number of “luxury textbooks” also appeared, creating a mismatch with families' financial capacity, so the old standard was drawn up mainly to save money. As living standards have improved, expectations for student textbooks have changed, making the old standard unsuitable.

Primary non-core textbooks move from A4 to B5

In recent years, primary school textbooks for non-core subjects such as music and art have consistently used A4. Some students said reading them was tiring, that they occupied too much desk space, and—more importantly—that the books were too big for schoolbags, causing frequent crumpling and hindering reuse. Once the new standard takes effect, these subjects will switch to B5. However, because printing plants' equipment cannot yet be changed on a large scale, the 184 mm × 260 mm specification will serve as a transitional size, while the 787 mm × 1092 mm specification will be eliminated entirely.

A4 'large-format' textbooks: three to five fewer characters per line

Under the new standard, middle school textbooks using A4 full-width layouts will remain in use. Because these “large-format” books have wider pages, printers may reduce the prescribed type area width by 13 mm to 20 mm to make reading more comfortable and ease visual fatigue; as a result, each line will carry three to five fewer characters. For lower-grade, mainly picture-based textbooks, there is no limit on lines or characters per page as long as the type area dimensions meet the requirements.

(Source: Beijing Daily)

— This article is reposted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-362144.html